Marathon

While in Flatwater Racing events, paddlers race on a straight course, Marathon Racing involves paddling sleek racing craft over long distances, on either the flatwater of lakes, and dams, or the flowing water of a river. Traditional Marathon Racing competitions, like ICF World Cup and World Championships, involve a fixed flatwater course with regular portages, where the paddler must carry the canoe or kayak. Each race lasts approximately 3 hours.

Many popular marathons are raced down sections of river, where the paddler must negociate the currents, rapids or weirs, or else portage around these obstacles. Some of these events attract over 2000 athletes each year and are often run inseveral stages over several days.

The Descent of the Sella in Spain, which is the oldest canoeing competition on the international calendar, once again attracted many spectators and over 1000 participants from around the world. This was the 83th edition and participants from 16 countries took part in this sporting event. It is believed that around 200,000 spectators followed the competition from the river banks.

France celebrated a gold medal in the last event of the 2019 ECA Canoe Marathon European Championships in Decize, France. Quentin Urban and Jeremy Candy were the strongest in men's K2 race. Renata Csay and Zsofia Czellai-Voros from Hungary won European Champion title in women's K2 and Mateusz Zuchora - Mateusz Borgiel from Poland were the best in men's C2 race.